Vancouver unveils $2.8-billion vision for Broadway corridor subway

Darah Hansen and Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun11.28.2012

The City of Vancouver says a subway to UBC is the best method to deal with constant overcrowding of transit along the heavily used Broadway corridor. The city has revealed a vision for a two-phased approach at an estimated cost of $2.8 billion, but funding remains elusive.

The City of Vancouver laid out its case this week for a $2.8-billion rapid-transit line that would run underground along the Broadway corridor, arguing that despite the hefty price tag, a subway is more efficient and less disruptive than streetcar service.

The city’s push for a subway line tunnelled along the corridor comes after years of talk on how best to relieve passenger congestion along the region’s second-busiest travel corridor, after the downtown core, and the most heavily used bus route in North America.

Serving the University of B.C. and the central Broadway business district (spanning from Main to Burrard streets), the route sees about 160,000 daily transit trips.

During peak morning hours, some 2,000 passengers at Commercial and Broadway are passed by with over-crowded buses failing to meet demand.

About half of the transit users are coming into the city from elsewhere in the region.

Meanwhile, commercial and residential development plans along the corridor itself are expected to only increase the pressure.

“We can say with some certainty that the current intolerable situation is going to get much, much worse,” said Dobrovolny.

The city’s vision calls for a bored tunnel that would run underground from Vancouver Community College, what is now the end of the Millennium Line, to UBC.

Dobrovolny said modern technology means the upheaval to businesses and residents that marred the construction of the Canada Line will be significantly minimized.

“We’re talking about a bored tunnel through the corridor and a bored tunnel does not cause disruptions to the surface except at station locations,” he said.

A surface-level light-rail line, by contrast, would have “tremendous impact” to the area, particularly west of Arbutus Street, where the corridor narrows.

Under that model, the city said the entire corridor would have to be dug up from building face to building face. Trees and sidewalks would have to be removed, over 90 per cent of current parking lost and drivers restricted on where they can turn at just about every intersection.

“It’s the cut-and-cover without the cover,” Dobrovolny said.

Ultimately, it comes down to the ability to move people, and city staff say a subway service is better able to handle congestion as ridership grows.

Existing council policy supports a staged construction approach with the initial subway line running west to Arbutus Street.

The second phase would see the line continue on to UBC, with new stations, at a cost of about $50 million each, built in as needed.

Costs of phase one of the project are estimated to be around $1.5 billion — a figure the city is hoping could prove more palatable to a cash-strapped regional transit authority.

TransLink spokesman Derek Zabel said while some kind of solution to Broadway corridor congestion a top TransLink priority, there are other needs across the region, including a demand for rapid-transit in Surrey.

Langley Mayor Peter Fassbender, vice-chairman of the mayors’ council, said while both the Broadway and Surrey rapid transit projects are next in the queue, it all comes down to funding.

The technical studies on both projects must be completed next year, he said, before a decision can be made on what to build.

Surrey is pushing for three light rail lines — along 104th Avenue between 152nd Street and City Centre; City Centre to Newton, with an extension to South Surrey; and along Fraser Highway, between City Centre and Langley.

“They’re both ultimately affected by our ability to raise the necessary capital to the build the infrastructure and then operate it,” Fassbender said. “We have to look at the various options and decisions and the funding envelope we have.”

The transportation authority has had to postpone several projects after regional mayors rejected a plan to raise property taxes in 2013 and 2014, which would have generated about $30 million annually for transit services.

Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs said it shouldn’t be an either/or proposal when it comes to funding both Surrey and Vancouver’s transit needs.

“There are regional reasons why Surrey should get dramatic investment in rapid transit,” Meggs said, adding, “We feel the same argument, with different outcomes, applies to Vancouver.”

UBC spokesman Pascal Spothelfer said he was encouraged to hear Vancouver’s rapid-transit proposal includes a connection to the university, even though it may be a staged approach.

The university had initially worried the city’s plans for a tunnel would end at Arbutus, and “we would be stuck with buses,” Spothelfer said.

But he’s still not convinced that $2.8 billion is enough to run a rapid-transit line all the way to the university, and called on TransLink, Metro Vancouver and the provincial and federal governments to come up with funding for the project.

Whether the line runs underground or along the street is unimportant to UBC.

“We don’t really care about the technology as long as rail connects to UBC and we’re not getting stranded along the way,” Spothelfer said.

Dobrovolny said the city has had discussions with UBC over possible partnerships that could be used to help fund a subway line, similar to investments in the Canada Line by the Vancouver International Airport.

But Spothelfer said the university can’t be compared with the airport, which has large undeveloped industrial lands and can levy airport improvement fees to generate funds for transit improvements.

Even if a decision on the Broadway subway proposal is made this year, the earliest Vancouver predicts the line could open is 2021.

“It could be a number of years before construction can begin,” said Meggs. “But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make the case. If we don’t make the case, we could completely miss the boat.”

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